Friday, July 25, 2014

The 1891 Koch & Co. Bldg -- No. 136 West 125th Street

In 1860 H. C. F. Koch & Co. opened its first store in
Greenwich Village at the corner of Carmine and Bleecker Streets.Dealing in dry goods and “fancy goods,” the business
was a success and by 1875 was ready to move northward to The Ladies’ Mile—the stretch
of Sixth Avenue between 14th Street and 23rd Street that
was already being built up with emporiums.The new store on Sixth Avenue at the corner
of 20th Street earned it a following among New York's feminine shoppers.

By 1890 The Ladies’ Mile was the shopping district for clothing, linens, and shoes.And so it was no doubt startling to Koch
& Co’s competitors when the firm laid plans to close its doors and move so
far north it could have been to another state—the developing neighborhood of
Harlem.

Henry Koch commissioned the well-regarded William H. Hume to
design his grand emporium.The architect
was simultaneously at work on the massive New Netherlands Hotel at the corner
of Central Park and Fifth Avenue for William Waldorf Astor.He produced for Koch a five-story retail palace of stone, brick and cast
iron that stretched through the block to 124th Street.It would easily have held its own among Sixth
Avenue’s grandest stores.

It was a risky, but brilliant move.Henry Koch knew that if his plan succeeded,
he would no longer compete with the massive stores like Hugh O’Neill, B. Altman
and Siegel-Cooper; but would essentially have a monopoly on the dry goods
business uptown.He had purchased the
large plot of land—Nos. 132 through 140 West 125th Street and 141 to
149 West 124th Street—for $250,000.The building would cost another $200,000.The $450,000 outlay would translate to about
$11 million today.

The original building was five stories tall -- Scribner's Magazine, January 1891 (copyright expired)

The store opened its doors on March 23, 1891.The Evening World said “The ladies of Harlem
and the Annexed District are much interested in the new five-story, fire-proof
building on the south side of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street, between
Lenox and Twenty-fifth street.”The
newspaper added “Harlemites will have a veritable dry-goods palace almost at
their doors.”But it would not be merely
dry goods that Koch offered to the district.“Koch & Co. will also carry a full line of millinery, china and
glassware, bedding and furniture, shoes, boys’ clothing, &c., in their new
store.”

Although workmen were still putting the finishing touches on
the store when the doors were opened, shoppers were impressed by the lavish
floral decoration “in the form of huge horse shoes, squares, triangles, wreaths
and bouquets,” said The Sun the following day.“’Koch Only Climbs Higher’ is the legend on one.Others bear the word ‘Success,’ and the dates
1860-1891.”

The emporium with its two and a half acres of floor space
was a model of up-to-date technology.There were passenger elevators and electric lighting and it contained “every modern convenience for
customers and employees,” said The Sun.To
assist ladies in choosing evening wear, there was a dark room in the form of a
Chinese pagoda lined with mirrors and lit by gas lights. Inside, shoppers could then see how the items would
appear in the simulated nighttime environment.There was also an ingenious system of sending customer payments from the
sales floor to the office, eliminating the necessity—and danger—of clerks
handling cash.The New-York Tribune explained
“The building is equipped with the latest and most up to date pneumatic tube
cash system, which is a sight worth seeing in itself.”

Koch & Co. would explain the move to its patrons in an
announcement in Scribner’s Magazine. “The rapid growth of New York up to and
beyond the Harlem River, the long-felt want of the residents of that section to
have a first-class Dry Goods Establishment nearer to their homes, has decided
us to build our present magnificent fire-proof building in 125th
Street, West.Whatever money, ingenuity,
and long experience could do to make this the beau ideal of a Dry Good Store,
has not been omitted.”

While Hume could have chosen terra cotta for the elaborate decorations high above street level, he went with carved stone. photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

Puck magazine thought it was a brilliant move and in January
1891 predicted that Harlem “is at no distant day to become the centre of the
Metropolis.”The magazine was highly
impressed with the move and the building itself.“One of the most eventful days in the history
of ‘Harlem’ was the day on which the Messrs. Koch & Co. opened their Dry
Goods Palace in 125th St. between Lenox ad 7th Aves.Deliberately we say ‘Dry Goods Palace,’ for
the buildings built by and for this house constitute a palace, indeed, and are
not surpassed by any establishment in their line.”

As shrewd as his move to Harlem had been, Koch’s next
business strategy was even more surprising and brilliant.He almost immediately sold his building and
property.On June 13, 1891 The Record
& Guide reported on the sale which brought Koch a profit of $125,000.“By this sale, too, a large capital which was
tied up in the building is returned to Koch & Co.’s dry-goods business, so
that the sale appears to have been a good thing for everyone concerned.”

By the terms of the sale Koch & Co. would continue to
occupy its building, paying rent to the buyer, F. O. Mattiessen.The Record & Guide saw this as a sign of
things to come for Harlem.“The general
observation of able real estate men is that this sale is not only the strongest
evidence during the last year or two of the great faith which investors have I 125th
street property, but it shows that there is a city of itself in Harlem where
business is being done independently of down-town stores, and that wealthy merchants,
recognizing this and realizing the vast population in that section of the city,
are seizing the opportunity to establish their emporiums on the most important
thoroughfare up that way.”

The American Publishing and Engraving Co. published its History and Commerce of New York that
year.It called Koch & Co. “one of
the largest and finest stores of the kind in the metropolis” and said it was “elegantly
fitted up and excellently appointed, and employ a veritable little army of
clerks, salesladies, etc., the entire staff numbering between eight hundred and
one thousand.”

By now Henry C. F. Koch had taken his son, E. Von Der Horst
Koch, into the business as a partner.The
firm offered the latest in fashion to the well-heeled Harlem shoppers.A supreme marketer, Henry knew that spending
money on ambiance would reap profits.When
the spring 1892 lines were introduced, Koch & Co. filled its floor space
with spring flowers for the enjoyment of its female shoppers.

“Here was an almost tropical luxuriance of natural flowers
and plants of every variety and color, causing the visitor to pause and absorb
for a moment the wealth of color and perfume.This beauty of garden foliage made an admirable setting for hats and
bonnets without number, and embracing all the latest styles,” said The New York
Times on March 27 that year.“A woman
visitor cannot escape the fascination of the combination, and is sure to find
the proper thing for herself in this particular line of adornment.”

Henry Koch’s gamble to move to Harlem paid off.In 1893 the store was enlarged and on
September 24 an advertisement announced “that the additions to and alterations
in their magnificent establishment are now completed.”A nearly seamless sixth floor provided
another acre of floor space and ten new departments.The ad stressed that the store was “unsurpassed
for light, ventilation, and having all the latest improvements, making shopping
a pleasure.”It frankly pointed out the
customer to whom the store catered; saying that its latest goods were “selected for
the better city trade.”

The new sixth floor proudly announced the store's name - photograph by Nicolas Lemery Nantel / salokin.com

Realizing that there was another valuable market to the
north, H. C. F. Koch & Co. advertised in newspapers like the White Plains The Eastern State Journal in 1895 noting
“We pay the railroad fares between White Plains, Hartsdale, Scarsdale,
Tuckahoe, Bronxville, Mount Vernon and 125th Street Station New York.”The price of a train ticket was worth luring shoppers
to the store.A lady’s wool “Boucle
Cloth” cloak was advertised that year for $10; a significant $250 in today’s
money; and a “light tan box coat” went for $35.

The enlarged store was even grander with broad arches and ornamentation -- photo by Irving Underhill from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYW1GQGQG&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

Koch & Co.’s marketing genius was perhaps no more
evident than in its Christmas windows.In
the 1870s Lord & Taylor began what be a New
York retailers’ tradition.But Koch
& Co. took it to new heights.

In 1894 the firm hired F. W. Campbell, the self-styled “champion
window artist of New York and Brooklyn.”Campbell designed 13 windows and Electrical World reported “The central
and largest is the Trocadero Palace, of Paris, done in miniature.The magnificent water stairway is admirably
reproduced.The statuary is the same as
the original, with one exception—a large bronze Goddess of Liberty stands in
the centre of the scene.Streams of
water start from the statues, from pipes and jets.They cross and recross each other and roll
down the stairway and over the stones shining and glistening from the light of
miniature incandescent lamps.”Another
scene depicted a storm at sea. “There is a wreck and the life-savers are at
work.”A small illuminated lighthouse
flashed and turned.The display cost the
firm around $2,000.

The 1895 Christmas windows featured electric lights and a working fountain -- Electric World magazine December 28, 1895 (copyright expired)

The windows were outdone the following year.The theme was “Christmas in the Old Country,”
and hundreds of miniature electric lights outlined the windows and turrets of
an English baronial castle.Revelers
could be seen inside while guests arrived in carriages during “the caprices of
an asbestos snow-storm which has been imported directly from Paris for the
occasion,” reported Electrical World.A
fountain sprayed at one side (although the magazine pointed out that, in real
life, it would have frozen up).

As did all the high-end retailers, H. C. F. Koch & Co.
delivered goods to its shoppers by horse-drawn trucks.Trouble ensued on April 25, 1900 when a
steam-powered automobile panicked one of the Koch horses near Mount Morris Park
where a vendor sold peanuts, candy and apples from his cart.

“About noon yesterday a locomobile was seen tearing down
Fifth Avenue at a furious rate; a big bay horse, hitched to one of H. C. F.
Koch & Co.’s wagons, reared as the machine passed it and then started to
dash down the avenue,” reported The New York Times on April 26. The newspaper noted “For weeks past an Italian
whom the children all know as George has taken up his stand at the corner of
One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue every morning and has
captured their pennies daily.”

Koch & Co.’s wagon crashed into George’s two-wheeled
pushcart “with a crash that could have been heard a block away.”It all would end in a very bad day for the
horse and for George.“The horse was
thrown down by the force of the collision and some of its harness broken, while
the contents of the wrecked pushcart were scattered in every direction.The sight of numerous youngsters chasing rosy
apples and gathering up peanuts by the hatfull quickly brought George to his
senses and he began to shout ‘Police!’”

It only got worse.“To
cap the climax the burning charcoal in the peanut roaster set fire to a can of
kerosene also on the pushcart, so that between the youngsters, the fire, and
the kerosene there was only a remnant of the stock left.”

The newspaper added “What became of the locomobile, which
caused all the trouble, nobody seems to know.”

Henry Koch also realized that to maintain a successful business his employees must be happy. In 1893 workers were invited to join the H. C. F. Koch & Co.
Employees’ Mutual Benefit Association.Every year it held a ball at which the Koch family was present.In 1903 Notions and Fancy Goods reported on
that year’s ball, held at the New Harlem Casino.“The ballroom, tastefully decorated with
palms and flowers in profusion, made a brilliant scene at the opening of the
grand march, which was led by the president of the association.”Members were treated not only to dancing; but
to vaudeville entertainments.

The labor paper, The Square Deal, which often complained
about working conditions, could find none in the Koch & Co. workplace.In August 1913 it reported “The comfortable
appointments of H. C. F. Koch & Co., in Harlem, its well ventilated tube
room and the firm’s system of distributing bottled water to its employees, and
its various social and welfare schemes, are the subjects of special paragraphs.”

While Koch & Co. kept up on current fashion trends, it
was apparently not a slave to Paris fads.Robert M. Cloos was the store’s buyer of cloaks and suits in 1903 and he
told Cloaks and Furs that year his theory regarding the American shopper.

“The American woman has a fine figure as a rule—much better
than the French woman, who, when she reaches the stage of curves is generally
fat.The American woman, on the other
hand, has curves combined with slenderness and the lines of her hips
particularly are often very beautiful.”He therefore believed that American shopper would continue to reject the
“skirt full and voluminous” favored by the Europeans.“She has a figure to display and the full
skirts do not do it.”

Therefore, said Cloaks and Furs, “Mr. Cloos has great faith
in the shirt-waist suit, but he also banks on the separate skirt and shirt
waist.”The magazine noted “The firm
caters to a very fine class of trade who have perfect confidence in them and
seldom go down town to make a purchase.Gowns from $200 to $250 are sold without any trouble.”

Among the largest departments at Koch & Co. was the
furniture department—50 by 250 feet in floor area.The Grand Rapids Furniture Record said in
1913, “Koch & Co. do not intend to lose a customer because of failure to ‘show
the goods.’”Here a dining room suite of
ten pieces could be purchased from $100 to $800.The periodical noted that “The firm realized
that while a down town store competes with only one or two other stores of its
same class, a Harlem establishment competes against all the down town
stores.It is Kock & Co. against the
down town field when a prospect wonders whether to patronize the Harlem store
or take his pocketbook into the subway.”

In 1923 a heart breaking tale played out.Bessie Clarke lived at No. 1989 Amsterdam
Avenue with her mother, Mary Clarke.The
18-year old saleswoman was engaged to be married and had saved up $300 for her
trousseau.Everything seemed to be going
perfectly for Bessie.

Then on Saturday May 5, just weeks before the wedding, her
mother went to Koch & Co.As the
53-year old woman was leaving, Helen E. Paul, a female detective, nabbed
her.In her bag was a silk waist and a
pair of silk stockings valued at $4.Although it was not a huge theft—amounting to about $50 today—Mary Clarke
was arrested for shoplifting and held at $500 bail.

The following day Bessie Clarke appeared in Judge H. Stanley
Renaud’s courtroom and offered her $300 trousseau money and her diamond
engagement ring as surety for the appearance of her mother at trial.The judge, “after he had heard from a court
clerk what the bail money had been saved up for, reduced the amount from $500
to $300, and Miss Clarke got her engagement ring back again.”

That same year, on October 26, The New York Times reported “The
H. C. F. Koch & Co. department store interests have bought the six-story
building they occupy…from the Frederick W. Matthiessen estate.”

By now the neighborhood had significantly changed.Quickly becoming what would be termed "Spanish Harlem," many residents of a generation earlier were being replaced by Puerto Rican families with lesser incomes. Yet Koch & Co. continued on in its 1891
palace for another decade.In 1932 E.
Von Der Horst Koch died and before long Koch & Co. had dissolved.

The 125th Street neighborhood suffered hard times
throughout the rest of the century.Entire
blocks of structures around the once-magnificent retail palace were razed.Today only it and one other lonely 19th
century building next door survive from what was once a vibrant and elegant
retail center.At street level, Hume’s
handsome design has been annihilated, replaced by gaudy modern storefronts.But above, Henry Koch’s grand emporium lives
on virtually intact.